


The Wrong Side of the Wall

by wolfeylover



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Class Difference, Dictatorship, F/M, childhood AU, dystopian au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 16:55:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,366
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5673511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfeylover/pseuds/wolfeylover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You and your best friend Sherlock live in two completely different worlds. You live in a world that is drowning in poverty and Sherlock lives in a world that is never lacking. Your worlds are separated by an imposing stone wall that no one has passed over in your life time. The two of you meet in secret and uncover the reason behind the existence of the wall.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Weaving between the crowds of people walking in the middle of the street wasn’t fun, but it was necessary. Nothing, not even the apocalypse, would stop you from missing this meeting. Your best friend lived on the good side of town, and you were stuck on the other side of the wall in the bad side of town. Really, good and bad didn’t begin to describe the difference between the two sides of the wall. On one side all of the houses were mansions, everyone had a pool more than enough food in their fridges. There was enough food on the good side of the wall to feed the entire population of the bad side twice. 

In contrast to the good side, the bad side had almost nothing. Entire families lived in single rooms, no one had enough food, and all everyone did was work to scrounge up enough money to survive one more day. Generally speaking the sides didn’t mix. In fact, that’s why the wall was built in the first place. Only the rich were allowed through the gates, and they rarely used the privilege. You couldn’t remember when the wall was first put up, but your grandmother did. Listening to her stories of how the two radically different communities gradually learned to hate each other made you sad. From the little that you gathered from other conversations, there was no animosity until the fence was built. Everyone got along and helped each other. Then, for some reason, the government decided to put up the wall. Soon after, the newspapers started telling stories about how horrible the rich people were. Everyone believed that the wealthy were the reason the fence went up.

But you knew better. Your friend told you the rich people were told that your people were evil. The newspapers were telling lies on both sides of the wall. It wasn’t going to stop, so you’d just have to be happy with having a friend on the other side to talk to. 

By now you were on edge of the bad side where the wall rose from the ground. Using the foot holds that got bigger with each meeting, you scaled the rock until you got to the top. Your friend was already there. He had his arms crossed over each other resting on the top of the wall. His curly black hair was all over the place as usual and the wind wasn’t helping. At first his expression was dominated by boredom, but when you popped your head over the wall he seemed to brighten up.

“Y/N. Molly isn’t with you.”

“Nice to see you too, Sherlock,” you say with a small laugh. “She had to help her Mama with the booth today. Her Papa is off working again. She says she hopes you are doing well.” Sherlock doesn’t say anything to this. He only hums. “So are you doing well? How is school going?” 

“It’s fine, though I would much rather spend my time figuring out why the government is spinning so many lies. So far I haven’t gotten far, but Mummy is taking me into work. I’ll be able to gather some information there.” Whenever he talked about his research of the wall he seemed to forget anyone was with him. You knew most people found it obnoxious and rude, but you found it fascinating. He loved doing it too much for you to be mad at him for it. So while he continued to rattle off all the things he knew and things he needed to know you simply rested your head in your hands and watched him. 

You had known each other since you were five. Curiosity of the wall had gripped the both of you, and you met each other at the top of the wall. For the first few days the two of you didn’t talk. You would scale the wall see each other and then scramble back down. Eventually you introduced yourselves and from there the friendship grew. Your meetings used to happen almost every day, but then you grew up and he went to school while you worked for money. And then he became obsessed with figuring out why the wall showed up. You could never figure out what triggered his interest, but it never passed. 

You surfaced from your memories to see Sherlock staring at you intently. “What?” you asked after a few seconds of silence. Sherlock shook his head but kept looking you in the eye.

“I have an idea,” he said after a while. You don’t answer. Instead, you tilt your head inviting him to continue. “I want you to come into town with me. You’ve lost weight. You haven’t been sleeping much and your father has been pushing you hard lately. Don’t you think you deserve a break?” The suggestion was so out of the ordinary you struggle to answer. “How do you… Oh never mind. I’d love too, really, but they won’t let me through the gates.”

“Of course not.” Sherlock interjected before you fully finished your sentence. “Which is why you’ll come over the wall.” As he said that he disappeared and you heard a thump. You pulled yourself onto the very top of the wall and looked down. From the ground, Sherlock looked up. “Well are you coming. We haven’t got all day. Your mother will wonder where you are eventually. Especially since you haven’t told her anything about our meetings.” With little choice you swung your feet over the wall and started down the unfamiliar foot holes of Sherlock’s side. You landed on the ground right next to said boy and gazed around. Everything was so different. So clean. So complicated.

“Won’t I get in trouble?”

“Nonsense. The people here are too dull to notice when something isn’t right if it isn’t surrounded in red and yellow lights and flashing words. Now come along. There are sights to see, and people to meet.” With that Sherlock turned and the jacket he always wore flared out behind him. He started walking off and you followed, ready for the adventure to come.


	2. Chapter 2

Sherlock led you confidently down the streets without giving anyone a glance. You on the other hand, looked at every single person you passed with anxiety. You were sure someone was going to find out you were from the bad side and would throw you out, but no one gave you a second glance. Perhaps you didn’t look as horrible as you imagined. Or maybe the people just didn’t care. For the first stretch of your adventure you tried to memorize where you were going, but the streets were so wide and the buildings were so big that your head started spinning. So you stopped trying and decided to simply rely on Sherlock to guide you back when it was time.

Eventually the two of you entered a building that reached towards the sky. The inside was very shiny and cleaner than anything you had ever seen. The floors looked like marble, and white columns held the ceiling up. A desk outlined in what looked like gold dominated one side of the room. Cushioned chairs were scattered throughout the room, but none of them were occupied.

“The lobby of our apartment building.” You looked up when Sherlock spoke but didn’t say anything in response. You were still in awe of your surroundings. You always knew they were better off than you, but this was crazy. Sherlock led you to a pair of doors on the wall opposite to the door you walked in. The bronze colored doors slid open to reveal a smaller velvet lined room. A man in a white uniform with gold lining stood in front of a line of buttons. You stepped in beside Sherlock and the doors slide shut without a sound.

“A friend of yours Sherlock?” the man in the uniform spoke. 

“It’s Mr. Holmes to you and who else would she be?” Sherlock answered coldly not giving the man a glance. The man simply chuckled as if he was used to it. 

“Going to your flat then?”

“Where else would I be going?” A button on the panel was pressed and it lit up. The floor shuddered beneath your feet and the entire room started moving. You grabbed onto Sherlock’s arm out of instinct and fear. These rich people had moving rooms and they couldn’t spare a little food. Sherlock set his own hand over yours until the room stopped moving and the doors opened. You both hurried into the adjacent hallway and moved far away from the moving room. “What was that all about?” you ask when you hear the doors shut. 

“It’s an elevator. It takes you up and down faster than stairs,” Sherlock started to explain before you cut in.

“No I mean why were you so rude to the person pushing the button? He seemed nice to me.”

“Well of course he would seem nice to you. You don’t know enough about how things work around here to understand much. He just pretends to be nice. He’s a spy. For the government. I’ve noticed they’re all over the place now that I’ve begun my research. I’m not sure what they’re around for…yet.” He stopped outside at the last door on the floor. There was only one other one that was on the opposite wall closer to the elevator. He unlocked the oak door with a key he took from his pocket and walked in. Sherlock hung his jacket on the rack near the door and then continued into the house. You felt extremely uncomfortable in your raggedy clothes in a place without a speck of dust. But you followed Sherlock anyways and found yourself in a bedroom the size of your house. 

“This is Mummy’s room. She won’t mind if we use some of her clothes for our purpose.” Your friend was standing in front of a wardrobe packed with clothes. He chose something at random and handed it to you. “Go change in the bathroom. It’s the third door from this one. Put your clothes in the hamper and meet me at the door. We have a meeting to get to.” He left you and went through the second door from the one you stood in. Hesitantly you walked down the hall to the third door. You pushed inside and changed as quickly as you could. The expensive cloth felt weird to your skin and you almost missed the dirty clothes you were now putting in the hamper. Or what you hoped was the hamper. You didn’t really know what a hamper was, but you assumed it was the basket in the corner.

With the expensive clothes on your dirt covered face stood out more than ever. Deciding it would be best to blend in as well as you could, you scrubbed your face to reveal the skin underneath. You did the same to your arms, but left your legs as they were covered by the pants you wore. With you cleaning done you returned to the door only getting lost once. Upon sight of you Sherlock swung the door open and stepped into the hallway once more. This time, instead of going back down the elevator, you took the stairs. The descent left you only slightly winded, but it didn’t seem to affect Sherlock at all. Even to you it was obvious he used them often. At the bottom of the stairs an emergency door led out into an alley way. The area reminded you of home, but it still looked nicer than most of the streets you were used to. 

“So who are we meeting?” you asked. Who could you be meeting after all. Sherlock couldn’t exactly show you off to many people.

“Some friends of mine. They are helping me with my investigation. I simply need to give them some information and we can get back to giving you a relaxing day.” You wanted to object to him going to the trouble to let you relax, but before you could he stopped short and you could see over his shoulder a group of people roughly his age. The oldest one only looked around 25. 

“About time you showed up. Your girl keep you late Sherlly?” The strangely accented voice came from a boy with pitch black hair and pale skin. He was even more dressed up then Sherlock was and you didn’t think that was even possible for someone your age. 

“She’s not my girl Moriarty. I didn’t come here to fight with you today. We have more important maters. Mycroft thinks he found something in the government’s data base, but he didn’t have the time to get a better look at it.”

“Sherlock is that why you called us here? It’s not exactly breaking news.” The oldest looking one spoke up.

“It doesn’t look like the wall was part of anything bigger,” he continued as if no one had spoken. “Instead it appears as if it was a last minute decision.” 

“Why don’t you stop with the useless information and tell us why the bad side doll is with you.” It was the pale one again and your eyes widened when he spoke. How did he know you were from the bad side of the wall? No one else had noticed. But Sherlock didn’t even flinch.

“Don’t call her a doll.” He growled.

“Oh are we territorial now?”

“Alright kids let’s settle our problems without pinching or hair pulling.” A blonde boy teased. This shut both Sherlock and Moriarty up.

“This meeting is over. I have places to be.” Sherlock dismissed the party abruptly. This didn’t seem to surprise anyone. “Come along Y/N” You got one last look of the group that was leaving before turning on your heels to follow your friend.

-.-.-.-.-.-.--.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Sherlock leads you all the way back to his flat. Once again you take the stairs, but this time the door is open when you get there. Sherlock doesn’t even pause before going through the door. You, however, stop at the doorway and look in. If the door was open then someone was already inside, and you didn’t think you’d be welcome by them. But you didn’t want to be left alone in the hall so eventually you went inside. Contrary to your belief there wasn’t anyone in the room, but there was steaming food spread out across the dining table. It was more food then you had ever seen in one place. It even exceeded the huge Thanksgiving feast that had fed three families last year.

Sherlock pulled out a chair and gestured for you to sit down in it. You hesitate still staring at the food. Surely it couldn’t just be for you. 

“Yes it is for us. Mycroft will come and join us eventually. For now though eat as much as you want.” You finally sit down. At first you only eat in small bites, but the deliciousness of the food gets the better of you and you start wolfing food down. You only slow down when a man walked into the flat and sat down at the table. Sherlock and him met eyes briefly before they completely ignored each other. When you finally reach the point where you can not swallow another bite Sherlock stands up and takes his almost full plate and your empty one to the kitchen. 

“It’s getting late. Unfortunately it seems like your vacation is coming to an end.” You shrugged your shoulders.

“That’s alright. Mama will be wondering where I am.” Without having to be told you slip into the bathroom and change into your old clothes. Your surprised to find them hanging on the sink freshly washed. You put the borrowed clothes in the hamper and tug your familiar ones on.

When you’re ready you and Sherlock make your way back to the wall. Once there you climb up and sit on the top until Sherlock joins you. Up here you can see equally the bad and good side. You swivel your head to look Sherlock in the eyes. “Thanks for taking me around. It was a lot of fun. I would offer to show you around my home, but I don’t think that’d be much fun for you.” 

“It’s strange how often you think incorrectly. I would love to look around your side of the fence. Perhaps some day when Molly is free as well.” You beam at him. 

“Of course!” With that you swing your legs over to your side of the fence and climb down. Once at the bottom you look up and wave to Sherlock. You raises his hand in good bye. With a heavy heart you turn from him and jog back into the dirty streets. They weren’t as crowded as before and all the stalls of products were gone. At the first intersection you come to you look back at the wall and are surprised to still be able to see a shock of black against the yellowing wall. You smile to yourself before making your way back to your family.


	3. Chapter 3

In five years nothing got better for the people on the wrong side of the wall. In fact they may have gotten worse. The population continued to grow without any room to expand. Things got more crowded and work has become even scarcer. You are lucky to have a job at all and you value the money more than you should. You still meet Sherlock regularly. He’s done with school and dedicates all his time to his investigations now. He pokes around under the story of being a detective, but with every case he solves he gets closer and closer to solving the problem that was the gate. Every other month you visited the wall and checked on his progress. In the full five years you’ve been in the city two other times. And Sherlock made sure to visit the bad side as often as he could. There was no need to hide his true origin after you explained his investigations, and the people treated him like family. At least they treated him a lot nicer than they would normally treat people. 

And now the time was coming. The time that Sherlock had worked on for close to eight years. He was finally getting everyone together to go over all the details. So you were heading towards the wall with your heart pounding in excitement. Maybe you could finally get the gates opened for everyone to use. In five years you had hit a small growth spurt. Now you could almost scale the wall without any of the footholds. Sherlock was waiting for you on the other side. He wore the same coat he did all that time ago, but he had grown into it. He had grown into all of his features and you knew your friend Molly liked him. She was so busy now that she didn’t get to see him often. She wasn’t even able to come to Sherlock’s big reveal.

“You are late. I thought you weren’t coming.”

“Of course I came. I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I just had to get done with work. This isn’t our normal meeting day.”

Sherlock led you down the now familiar path towards the building that Sherlock lived in. You still looked around in curiosity every time you stepped through the lobby doors and the elevator still startled you, but you were getting more and more used to it. The man in the elevator tipped his head to you, and you nodded back. Sherlock kept his icy gaze away from the man. His attitude affected the atmosphere of the smaller room now that he stood a few inches over the elevator operator. At a small ding the elevator doors slid open and you followed Sherlock down the corridor. 

You both entered his flat and followed the same routine you always did. He gave you a piece of his mama’s clothing, and you changed in the bathroom. Then he met you by the door and you went wherever was planned for the day. Today it was back to the first place you ever went on the good side of town. The first place you met all of Sherlocks “friends.” And they were all there today. Greg, Jim, Mycroft, John, Irene, and they all looked in eager to hear what Sherlock said. Well Jim looked a little bored, but he normally did unless he was teasing someone. 

“Good you’re all here. Let’s not beat around the bush. I’ll go straight to the point.” Sherlock began. “After seven years of extensive research I’m confident that I have figured out the true reason the wall separating the rich and poor went up. It was never meant to separate the rich and poor. It was created to separate smart and the dumb. Neither side cared to look into the real reason because as soon as the wall went up newspapers on the opposite sides sent out opposing stories. One story said the poor were barbarians and the wall was going up for the rich’s protection. The other side said the rich were disgusted by the less fortunate and they were putting up the wall. Each side was made to hate each other and the true motives were never found out.

“Until now. Besides the fact that a distinction between smart and stupid was put up there was a reason. The government’s hold on the people was slipping, and they knew they had to get the intelligent people as far away. So they made their headquarters in the middle of the town and built a wall. A stupid plan really. There were numerous solutions to the original problem, but all they succeeded in doing was create more. They didn’t take the time to realize that a sort of natural selection would take place and almost the entire next generation would be smarter than the last. So now they have genius children on both sides and they’re all wondering what is going on.”

“That’s where we come in. Throughout the city government spies have been watching everyone. In fact they’re watching us right now, because they seem to have caught onto my investigations. They will arrest us and take us to the government’s base in town. They will threaten to kill us and from there I will handle it. There will be no need to panic, cry, or blow anything up or shoot anyone. I’m talking to you Moriarty.”

“I’m quite aware of you singling me out Sherlly.” 

Sherlock turned to face you with a strange look on his face you had never seen before. “They’re going to take you away from us (Y/N) They might lock you up for being on the wrong side, but you can’t let them see you scared. I will find you as quickly as I can.” You heart rate spiked at the thought of being taken away from your best friend by the police. They could do horrible things to you without anyone evening noticing. Even with these thoughts crossing your mind, you put a brave face on and nodded. 

The next words didn’t come from Sherlock as you expected but from Jim who had finally looked up from picking his nails. “Let the fun begin.” At that moment a swarm of people in uniforms snuck up on the group.

“You teens are being taken into custody for conspiracy against the government. You will be taken to see the director of security and dealt with.” The man speaking turned to look at you. “And you will be detained for unlawful crossing of the boundary put up for everyone’s safety.” You were only able to stop your face from paling because you knew it was coming. Two people broke from the main group and led you in a different direction than the others. You cast one look over your shoulder in Sherlock’s direction to catch his gaze. He looked concerned, but you only gave him a small smile and walked peacefully between your guards.

You count four days total that you were kept in a dank underground prison. The guards told you it was reserved for people who crossed the wall and that you were the first one to use it. There wasn’t a clock but you could see the sunlight through a small window that gave the guards enough light to see by. You were fed little and the chill of the cell seeped all the way to your bones. To keep yourself from breaking down and crying you kept repeating what Sherlock had told you over and over in your head. You couldn’t let them see you scared. He would come to get you. 

It was during one of these chanting sessions that your savior finally showed up. You could hear commotion a little ways down the hall and then it rose into shouting. One voice carried farther than the rest. “Block me from the hall for one more second and I will make certain your job isn’t the only thing you’ll lose.” The arguing stopped and then pounding footsteps were coming your way. You scrambled to the metal door to hear the footsteps stop right outside your door. The lock on the door rattled and then the door swung open to reveal your black haired friend. You flung yourself at him and locked your arms around his middle.

“Sherlock!” the man froze up for the longest amount of time before wrapping his arms around your shoulders. 

“The gates are being open. You can go back to your mother, but I have a question to ask.” You don’t pull away from where your face is buried in his chest. “I have asked my mother, and she would be happy to have you stay with us. You can help us spread the truth to people, and even start getting a better education.” Sherlock’s offer was so out of the blue that you didn’t answer right away. You blinked several times before pulling back.

“I would love to help out as much as I can.”


End file.
